Dominic Cole
Chair Gardens Panel
It’s not every day you’re given the opportunity to work with the UK’s extraordinary heritage, and to help the people who look after it. How could anyone resist such an opportunity? I was working as a Landscape Architect in private practice and was already heavily involved with the Garden History Society. Then a colleague suggested that my expertise could be of benefit to the National Trust.
It’s been a fantastic experience. My first personal highlight was meeting one of my horticultural heroes, Roy Lancaster, when I was invited to join the Gardens Advisory panel. I now chair the panel, a panel made of up gardening and horticultural experts. I feel genuinely proud to work with them.
The Gardens panel is professional, relaxed, unbiased and positive. We respond to requests for advice from the Gardens Team, individual properties and other Advisory Panels. We try to meet at properties where advice is being sought. As well as being a real privilege, a site visit is the best way to see and hear everything that's happening. It’s great to be able to wander around, whatever the weather, and take everything in. I can honestly say that volunteering with the National Trust is one of the most rewarding ways to share your professional experience.